The Order of the Phoenix
by icer01
Summary: Maya manages to invoke Phoenix's latent spiritual powers. These do not escape the attention of Kristoph, who plans to co-opt them for his own vengeful purposes. And another party returns with their own agenda... Version 2.0 due to writing 'sequel' :
1. Chapter 1

**THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX**

**~BOOK 1: VERSION 2.0~ **

* * *

_Note: despite the title, this is definitely NOT a Harry Potter-esque AU, I just found the reference pathetically amusing_

_I EDITED IT SINCE THE 1ST EDITION IN 2008, IT'S BETTER NOW! _

_I'm also writing the epic SEQUEL, which is **a lot better** (which is why I 'improved' this one in the first place)._

_In MY head-canon, it now takes place after my other fic, **One Last Night**, although not in a direct narrative sense, so it's not necessary to read OLN first._

* * *

"MAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Phoenix's blanking-out vision flailed and grasped, just barely salvaging sentience as it hit the object of his sanity.

The rhythm of Maya's incarnations didn't waver a beat, but Phoenix suddenly felt a palm grasped around his.

Phoenix might have returned the squeeze of mutual affect, but he didn't have the energy. His hands didn't want to work anymore. In fact he'd even forgotten their existence before Maya's presence was detected in them.

He let forth a choking, silent scream and beat his pupils into focused recognition, somehow jarring his neck in the direction of his torture-partner.

Maya was coated in shards of ice, same as him, but for some reason by comparison her hands were hot as a candle. Even her shivering was in synchronisation.

Phoenix tried to recall what he was doing, but couldn't. His mouth let forth an _un_-silent scream.

The drain of this was apparently too much and he felt himself collapsing, a stab of insufferability as his face contacted... (he was too pained to tell, but it was actually a block of spiritual ice.)

Something - someone - was suddenly dragging him upward.

"Nick! NICK! Stay with me!"

His mouth opened, but no sound came out.

"Repeat the chant!"

"C-chant?" Or at least, his mind said that. A sort of cough came out.

"Say it with me! What number are you up to?"

_Number?_ The world wavered spacily

"You're up to 5073! Keep going! Say it with me!"

Phoenix's brain was too frozen to register now, but as he recalled later, this was what was happening. He and Maya had arranged themselves in a meditatory position on blocks of spiritual ice, side by side, in such a position that some daggers of Hell known as a 'waterfall' continuously impaled them. (_Though isn't Hell hot?_) The air temperature was such that not only were they soaked to flattened pools of bedragglement, but the droplets of water tended to freeze.

His own spikes had warped and collapsed into a twisted, sodden, snowballed mess, and been augmented with new ones in jagged shards and icicles. How the waterfall's flow itself was kept just above freezing point Phoenix neither knew nor cared, not that cognitive thought continued at all once a few seconds of the 'training' had set in - the pain in his head was so great not much else could continue to register.

The blocks of ice they sat on didn't melt either. Apart from it not being warm enough, they'd been set with some spell - that was why it was 'spiritual ice'. Phoenix didn't pretend to understand Maya's earlier explanation. Maya's explanations of concept didn't tend to be in orderly, logical communication, anyway. And as for it being 'cold' - soon there was no distinction to Phoenix whether he was burning up or freezing to death or being able to regulate his body temperature or body in general at all. There was nothing but a sort of 'pain' of total and utter physiological distress from which one was not allowed to faint into blissful unconsciousness, but remain in conscious, unflappable will of focus whilst continuing to audibly chant the crucial incarnation - 10000 times. Sister Bikini had locked them in the Sacred Cavern, and would not under any circumstance let him out before that milestone was reached, not even if he dropped dead first, he'd feared.

_No, Maya would _make _her let me out. _So he'd given into her demands to do the Hazakurain Special Course. He always did give into her demands...

Right now Phoenix's imagination tried to amass the will to drag a picture of himself to the barred cavern doorway and puppet it to beg to be let out prematurely. Even maintaining the sequential narrative was almost beyond the force of his will, let alone to make his muscles manifest it in reality. He focused on his only beacon, the pressure of Maya's will on his hand.

"Don't give up, Nick! I'm here! I won't leave till _you_ finish, either!"

So Phoenix's will finally manifested the capacity to sneak open his eyes and.. observe Maya.

As he worded the conceptual memory later, her face was a mask of composed serenity. Her hair (far from his own destruction) was elegantly swept in impeccable mutual flow with the course of the waterfall. Her chants were forceful and unwavering. Phoenix drowned in inautonomous awe, as if he should bow to this pinnacle of resilience and Master-y.

He'd expelled the thought at the time as a symptom of physiological distress, but later events caused him to recall and reconsider.

###

It was a problem.

The spectre of Phoenix's new 'life' stretched purgatorily towards him. No more did his 'job' - life cause -take place in the open theatre of a courtroom.

No more could he count on the the police force's bumbling - though tacit - right of his protection in investigation -let alone that he only keep his suspicions against the dangerous obscured for maximum a few days before airing them in court.

That poker game he'd been roped into had been terrible, chance being the main victor. He watched the other people who ended up winner - how did they _do_ that inscrutable-face thing? As for that _and_ his life in general, it was all he could do to suppress his twitching pointer finger, not throw evidence and, well, shut up.

'Investigating' Kristoph Gavin was even worse. Phoenix spent much of their 'chats' sick with fear and warped with unbridled indignation. He improvised solution to part of the problem by gluing his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't gesticulate or let Gavin find out his palms were sweating.

Still, Gavin would be able to tell if he wet himself. He couldn't sleep at night due to ever-increasing paranoia. And anybody, even Gavin, could read faces, despite Gavin's fabled poker incompetence.

Phoenix castigated himself for not masking his emotions and fears as soon he would manifest his own nightmares - with a 'mistake' even stupider and more fatal than 'presenting forged diary pages'. The inability to do so inflated his paranoias further in a vicious cycle. Who knew who'd be the casualty this time - him, Maya, Trucy..?

_I have to calm down! I have to relax! _He endlessly repeated the mantra, clutching his pocketed Magatama being his only support. But when Phoenix flicked the switch _off_ his personal fear and paranoia, it jerked straight to his usual outlet of the burning fires of expressed injustice.

It was the day he just barely suppressed verbalising an 'OBJECTION' at Kristoph... that Phoenix knew something had to be done.

###

"Cards? Nick, you _still_ owe me that money from your spectacular loss last time!"

Phoenix said nothing, eyes just slightly hopeless.

"Oh..." Even Maya realised that was tactless. "I'm sorry! I mean, I..." That was _more_ tactless.

Phoenix tried to avert collapse into the pit of now-painfully-framed swirls of memory (orange freaks, pigeon feed, and that evening of him and Maya. Together. In the l-law office...) as Maya's current apologetic eyes dragged him forward

"Y-you want to play cards? Of course!" she enthused encouragingly. "H-how about 'Revenge of Ami Fey'?"

"I w-was thinking poker."

"Poker? WHY?"

"N-no reason, I j-"

"Why do you look so guilty? What did I tell you about gambling?"

"I don't!"

"Nick, why did you sign up to a job playing poker?"

" I...didn't."

"You're hiding something! I can tell, 'cause you're doing that weird sweat-pouring thing again."

"L-let's play."

After Maya had beaten him for the 5th time in a row, Phoenix had to concede. How the heck did that emotion-spilling Maya of which he was so fond suddenly put on that, well, g-game face?

Well okay, it wasn't a 'game face'; he now remembered when he'd seen it before. Total serenity, j-just like she'd been sitting there unflappable during that Special Course torture where he'd barely even been able to retain consciousness, let alone facial resolve. That had been a different side of her he hadn't witnessed, one for which he'd formed a secretive respect.

Awe even.

###

Of _course_ Maya was eager to help him. And so, during many of his semi-regular visits to Kurain, she would assist him in undergoing masochistic waterfall training with her.

At first Phoenix would practically collapse unconscious from the torture of the icy daggers, but over the years he built up resistance and even a masochistic affection for the brutal ritual. For Maya, (her powers of resilience clearly in another level), it was just a simple warm-up for her _real _training, but still, when faced with a tight spot masquerading with Kristoph, he could just retreat to the same place of inner resolve he entered while the waterfall torturously assaulted him outside . Even when Kristoph had finally been put away, and his innocence of forgery proven in court, Phoenix had grown accustomed to the ritual.

###

"Maya... I've been wondering. How do you use that Magatama to break black Psyche-Locks?"

"Black? Nick, Psyche-Locks are red. Except if..." Maya was thrown in minor confusion. She knew of the existence of the Black Psyche-Lock, but... "Are y-you sure it wasn't too dark or something?" _Too much grape juice._

"Objection! That never stops me seeing red ones!"

"Okay! Sorry! There _are_ black ones, I j-just didn't think _you_ would see them with that magatama, but maybe my last charge was more powerful than I thought." For some reason Maya felt very insecure in this justification, her feet shuffling uneasily as she absently fingered her own Magatama.

But Nick was still eyeing her expectantly, so she flailed through her store of knowledge in attempt to answer his earlier question.

Maya _did_ know a lot about Psyche-Locks. Since becoming Master she'd studied up on them, since the Magatama and charms invested in it were her main means to look after poor Nick remotely.

"Where d..." Nah, she didn't need to be told. Nick was so torn up about that Gavin jerk, she didn't want to necroscopy _that_ topic.

Normal Psyche-Locks occurred when at some subconscious level the interrogated subject felt remorse or regret over what they were hiding, hence the fact they might be 'broken down' by somebody with Nick and all his evidence and arguing. Black Psyche-Locks occurred when the target felt no subconcious remorse or unease, but total inherent entitlement, concealing the secrets _only_ out of spite or arrogance. That did sound like Kristoph Gavin.

"Y-you can't." Some immense amount of spirit power might _hypothetically_ be able to break such locks, but it sure wasn't the kind your average person ever got in a charged Magatama. _I'd never be able to do it myself._ "But it means you can SEE they're hiding something, they just think they're too justified to admit it with guilt or whatever..." _'You_ can see?' Maya had trouble spitting the words out, and it wasn't just because she didn't like disappointing Nick. In fact, by that evening it still produced a lingering unease she couldn't quite place.

The ongoing concern led her to the Kurain Master's Library, a mass of priceless ancient esoteric texts dating back hundreds upon hundreds of years of Feys.

Again picking up '_Secrets of the Psyche Lock'_ (compiled by a Great-Great Grandmother Fey), Maya re-read the passages on '_unbreakable locks_' and '_use of charged Magatamas by spiritually devoid people_.'

Maya was afraid she'd misread, so she rubbed her eyes and pored over the pages again. But the wording was explicit. "_Spiritually charged Magatamas allow the spiritual-power impaired to view breakable, red Psyche-Locks, but unbreakable Locks are _**not** _visible to the spiritually untalented, one of the severe limitations of this technique. Spiritually _**talented** _women, however, can view unbreakable Psyche-Locks in a black hue_."

After a moment, Maya sighed in relief at reasonable explanation. Maybe the charge Pearl had put on the Magatama she gave Phoenix was more powerful than the ones invented by the time the book was written. Pearl was studious and dedicated, after all.

She'd better double-check to make sure.

###

Pearl's answer was slightly disconcerting.

"No, I just put the regular charge on it, like in '_Secrets of the Psyche Lock_.' I don't think it is possible to make unbreakable Locks visible to ordinary people. Unless you figured out how, Mystic Maya?"

"No… I was just asking, that's all," stammered Maya.

###

And as the new year dawned after Phoenix finally cleared his name, he had returned to Maya vowing to be 'partners' after some years of their 'not-quite-committed' relationship. His future lying with with Maya he was sure, as for other aspects of his life (Should he take the Bar Exam again? Should he do something else?) it was definitely time to do some deep soul-searching in the relative peace of Kurain.

_'Soul' searching. Oh ha ha ha._ His poker-cynicism face dropped an inner sarcastic smirk.

_I can't just walk into the Bar exam anyway, the damn thing has probably changed so much since then_... _Not that I want that Justice kid knowing_! Kurain was looking better all the time, even if he revived the law career.

Trucy, now 16, was gaining independence, and spent the weeks with Apollo and her newfound mother Thalassa, visiting Kurain on weekends. (Phoenix had felt obliged to tell Trucy about her mother, despite Thalassa's protests, and though Thalassa had insisted it remain secret from Apollo, Phoenix had hinted to him that he and Trucy "might be related.")

The other residents of Kurain –many of them old Mystics with varying levels of spiritual power – regarded Phoenix with curiosity but incredulity. Most of them hadn't thought much of him when he was considered a forger, and even when proven innocent, they didn't seem to be that enamoured with him. However, Phoenix assumed this was simply the typical lot of males in Kurain.

Well, a _few_ of the residents had taken a shine to him, such as old Mystic Maudred, who had just dropped by to chat _yet again_, though Phoenix got the disturbing impression it was only under the impression he was imminently going to impregnate Maya with a female child as heir.

"I'm so sorry, Nick," Maya had apologised the previous occasion. "It's not _you_, it's just that in Kurain tradition, that's all males are good for. They only respect people with spiritual powers, you see. I'm trying to change things, but it will take a while..."

Phoenix listened politely to Mystic Maudred, recalling how poor Maya had secretly admitted she never, ever wanted children at all, she was sick of the generations of intra-Clan warfare dividing cousins and siblings, and that as far as she cared Pearl's future children could inherit the Master position by default.

He got the feeling Maya lacked the confidence to impart this information to Mystic Maudred, however. But whilst he was thinking this, the Mystic's incessant monologue suddenly took a turn for the interesting.

"Boys have no powers, so we don't really have much use for them. They just eat, and take up space. Why, this is hush-hush, but once Mystic Morgan had a _boy_! We never got to see him though - she got rid of it straight away, before she'd ever finished labour. She told me to throw it in the river, but one of the other Mystics knew the phone number of the father, so I told him to come and collect it."

"And.. did he?" gulped Phoenix apprehensively.

"I think so. He was kind of drunk, and extremely resentful. I'm not sure what happened to him. Morgan refused to mention either of them ever again. She threatened to have me banished if I said anything."

She paused to glance at Phoenix. "Don't look so shocked. Why, one of the young acolytes had a boy around the same time. Mystic Morgan made her get rid of it too. I managed to take him to the orphanage, I'm not sure if they could contact the father… Hey, did you know, back in the day, Master Mary channelled a CAT ghost, but..." Mystic Maudred trailed off into a spiel of unrelated memories, obviously no longer enjoying the subject.

###

Phoenix's feet scrambled for foothold agianst the treacherous stones, his eyes fixed upward.

"Um, Maya?" he queried, as the waterfall platform pricked into view, far, far up the cliff face path. "D-does Pearl have a missing half-brother?"

"No. Why?" Maya's eyes bulged interest.

"Well, Mystic Maudred was telling me that Morgan once had a boy, but she got rid of it as soon as it was born."

"I hope not," sighed Maya. "But Mystic Maudred is a bit,um, 'delusional' sometimes. I bet it's just some kind of imaginary vision she had in one of her trances - I sure never heard of it before." Maya paused. "Got rid of. Did she... _kill_ him?"

"Mystic Maudred said that Morgan told her to, but instead she called the father to take him away."

"I don't think it's true. We'd have heard from him by now, right? We did find Iris and Dahlia, after all…"

"Can people channel cats?"

"Huh? I d-don't think so..."

Both were lost in thought as they arrived at the waterfalls.

###

Usually Phoenix and Maya meditated side by side in solidarity, Maya devoting 90% of her powers to her meditation whilst 10% kept a slight watch for potential troubles from Phoenix. He'd come along well from the days when she'd had to devote the entirety of her attention to preventing him from passing out.

Today, however, Maya remained on high alert. When Phoenix began to enter his outwardly numbed, trance-like state, she slipped out from her position under the spray and crawled onto the rock platform an inch in front of him.

That confusion over the black Psyche-Locks was both irritating and tantalising. It was _definitely_ past time to clear it up.

Young girls in Kurain with latent spiritual powers could be coaxed into displaying them with a few 'simple' exercises. She doubted he'd display any, but this could finally rule out this tantilising confusion.

"Nick?" she said aloud, projecting to his trance-like state. "Can you hear me?"

Phoenix mumbled something incoherent. He was already clutching the Magatama, as he always did during waterfall training, akin to security blanket.

Most people could only see the charged power emanating from the Magatama as a greenish glow. However, spiritually talented people like Maya could also _feel_ it, detecting the radiating power with something like a sixth sense. For highly trained and powerful mediums, the main issue was screening _out_ unwanted signals to focus on those of interest, but to untrained and less talented acolytes, the key was managing to detect the signals in the first place.

"Nick..?" She leaned forward.

He twitched slightly. She took it as a sign.

"I want you to concentrate on the Magatama for me."

His fingers gripped it tighter.

"You know there's power radiating off the Magatama, right? Well, I want you to _feel_ it. Try and pick up the signals with your mind."

"Can't…no spiritual power.." mumbled Phoenix objectionably.

"Since it's charged, ordinary people can detect it too," lied Maya, not wanting him too demoralised to try. "I want you to concentrate. Try and detect the signals."

Phoenix appeared to be trying, but only achieved an expression as if in physical pain. Maybe this was a lost cause.

Though Maya was seized with lingering remembrance that some girls in Kurain possessed the sixth sense, but could never learn to access its feedback consciously.

Maya blinked and rubbed her eyes. Was the Magatama glowing brighter, or was she just imagining things?

"Can't..." muttered Phoenix.

"Come _on_, Nick!" commanded Maya, sadly aware that no matter how much she willed something to be true, it wouldn't make it so. Her desires sent the sum total of her supportive thoughts in his direction, her mind still acutely aware this was _not_ one of her spiritual powers and it would not have much effect.

But in this concentration on him, she detected something else. Was that… the weakest radiation of untrained spiritual power?

Maybe it was just wishful thinking.

"Concentrate on the powers coming from the Magatama. It's like a sixth sense," she repeated again. "You can do it! I believe in you."

But he seemed about to pass out. Maya clasped her hand to his, ready to catch him and wake him up, furious with herself for subjecting him to this dangerous charade for her own selfish curiosity...Then she froze, enraptured.

The pulsating glow of the Magatama was _indeed_ increasing before her eyes, and the green was morphing into a blue-ish tinge…

Nick's face then turned a pale shade of grey.

"Nick! Nick! Wake up!" she cried frantically, grabbing him in her arms to support him so he wouldn't smash into the rocks resurfacing from his trance.

She dragged his dazed form from under the tumultuous spray, upon which his exhausted eyes drooped into an uneasy doze. When he awoke a few minutes later, he had no recollection whatsoever that the events of this training session were any different than usual.

###

Usually after a waterfall session, Phoenix felt exhausted and drained, but somehow rejuvenated. This time, however, he felt hideous. His head exploded in pain, he felt nauseated, and every cell of his body seemed on the verge of collapse.

"I.. kinda feel awful," he admitted, unable to resist collapsing onto a nearby boulder.

Maya felt horrible. Any usage of spiritual power was excessively exacting to the untrained beginner – she vaguely recalled how awful her initial sessions had been as a young child. In her own enthrallment and disbelief she had probably forced too much from him.

She perched concernedly next to him. Phoenix had taken on an alarming pallor and was shivering gently.

"I'm sorry, Maya," he gasped in response to the supportive clutch of her palm. "I guess with no powers I'm not exactly cut out for your training. I just get in the way of what _you_ have to do as Master."

"Not at all!" enthused Maya desperately, fearing he'd quit. "I _like_ having you here. And you're actually extremely talented at this!"

"Thanks," he muttered disbelievingly, "but I know you're just trying to make me feel better."

"No. It's true," she stated firmly. "You're unusually talented. Today, when you were in the waterfall's trance… well, you showed you do have some kind of spiritual powers!"

Still incredulous, Phoenix vaguely wondered if it was April Fools Day or something. He cracked open his eyes, but Maya's face was resolutely serious.

"I...really think I should try giving you some beginners' training," she went on.

"But I thought the Kurain Channelling Technique was only possible for women?"

"It is. But there are other spiritual powers. I think you're a member of, um, the Order of the Phoenix."

###

Maya was delirious at the prospect of Phoenix having spiritual powers. Besides, if he had the power level she suspected, the more narrow-minded residents of Kurain would be forced to stop infuriating her and finally give her Phoenix the respect he deserved.

Maya usually delegated most actual training of new acolytes out to other Mystics, but of course Nick became her pet personal project. The other Mystics scoffed at her, but Maya was determined. Soon 'Mystic Phoenix' would outrank even them in spiritual power!

...Though she soon found she had to improvise with 'Mystic Nick' and throw the training manuals out the window. Nick's powers seemed to be different to the usual Kurainian ones, and didn't seem to include actually channelling spirits. Oh well. They'd both always been a bit iconoclastic.

Successfully invoking a lot of hispowers was based on trial and error. For example, what was she to make of rememberings like "Maya? I once dreamed that I brought some evidence from the future into an investigation in the past… but maybe I wasn't dreaming? " But Maya was determined.

They hadn't exactly found much practical application for his powers yet, but she felt it was important he got some awareness of his potential so he could decide if and how he wanted to use them. Though he'd got more cynical and jaded over the years, he was still a lovely guy at heart, and he'd probably want to use his powers to help people or better humanity or somesuch.


	2. Chapter 2

The Kurain elders are incredulous and see the Master's training of Phoenix as some kind of joke. Surely she is deluding herself that her 'friend' has any spiritual power. It's a waste of the Master's attention, but she _is_ the Master, so they can't question her usage of time too brazenly. However two of the older Mystics resolve to discreetly observe this farce themselves, and possibly hint to the Master that this is a lost cause, based on the proof of their observations.

Maya has resolved today to test Phoenix's progress with some kind of task. He's been preparing for several days, meditating and fasting on one of Kurain's remote mountains, Maya playing close attention to his wellbeing - but, of course, not fasting herself, though she's had the tact to depart to where Phoenix can't see as she gobbles her meals. The elders crouch unobserved behind one of the many large boulders.

Maya is a little concerned over the task she's set Phoenix today. She fears it's too dangerously exacting, but his powers only seem to include a small subset of the usual Kurain talents and she's had to choose a feasible activity from among them. He does have some other, unKurainian powers, but harnessing them is the subject of mutual experimentation and they can't be accurately tested or predicted.

Phoenix crouches in a meditatory position, his Magatama secured around his neck. Maya removes her own Magatama and passes it to him, with the intent he will give it the Psyche-Lock Charge that Pearl originally manifested in Phoenix's own Magatama. Charging a magatama isn't exactly a beginners' task, but Phoenix lacks talent in many areas traditional beginner tasks come from, and he's already demonstrated his inherent talent in this particular sphere.

Maya kneels directly behind Phoenix, placing her hands firmly and supportively on his shoulders. It's essential that she can stop him immediately if the task is too much of a danger to his physical health. Phoenix's powers always seem to require far more physical pain and exertion to utilise than hers or Pearl's – she's not sure if it's because of the differing nature of his powers, the fact he is male, or both, but she assumes it's the way he has learned to compensate for something they possess and he lacks.

Today's task is definitely going to require pushing himself through the pain barrier, but Maya's confidence in her acolyte amasses by the day.

"Ready? Okay," signals Maya, and she watches as Phoenix closes his eyes and begins willing himself to concentrate his powers, his face afire with the same determination-expression she'd once seen at her murder trials.

Maya also trains her powers – to observe the steadily building power source in Phoenix's psyche, and the consistently vibrating, differing power source inherent in the uncharged magatama. Her sense shows her that Phoenix's power continues to build, but then begins to flicker and falter.

"Come _on_, Nick! You can do it! _Focus_!" hisses Maya encouragingly in his ear. She bites her own tongue as she senses his power source flail, but then slowly begin increasing in strength once more. "That's it! Train it into the magatama," directs Maya.

Phoenix falters, but finally succeeds in correctly throwing the weight of power against the Magatama. Not quite enough, however - the power is not strong enough to overcome the barriers thrown up by the autonomy of the Magatama.

"Just a little more!" encourages Maya, Phoenix somehow exerts himself to even greater extremes.

"Almost there!" encourages Maya, clutching his shoulders tightly in empathy, aware his pain is so strong she can practically feel it herself. "I _know_ you can do it," she explains as she wills him with every particle of her being, though she knows her positive thoughts will have no effect on the spiritual powers themselves.

Delirium thrills her stomach as her senses percive his power reaching the critical threshold and managing to surge and recombine with the power of the Magatama. Maya grins in exhilaration as the Magatama explodes into a gentle blueish glow. The hidden elders can't suppress an audible gasp.

"You did it! Stop! Stop right now!" He goes limp and drops the Magatama.

She hugs him delightedly. "Congratulations! Are you okay?"

"Yeah… I guess I'll live."

Maya turns to pick up her Magatama. She is taken aback to find that instead of the glow fading away as would be expected of a beginner, it's shimmering with light as strongly as it was initially.

"You're very, very good," she expresses unreservedly, hanging the magatama back around her neck.

"Because I have a great teacher?"

"Well, yes…. but you're very talented as well."

The elders slink back, overcome. Many of the Kurain _mystics_ can't charge a magatama.

Whatever powers this Phoenix has, they may not be typically Kurainian, but they are serious.

###

It's boring in jail. Kristoph took adequate precautions for this possible scenario, so he bribed enough people and constructed enough forgeries in advance to ensure a luxurious stay in prison, but even with these measures, there's still not much to do except sit, paint his nails, and think.

As Kristoph thinks, he seethes. For example, _why_ did he not dispose of that Miles Edgeworth? Further dedicated research surely would have revealed his close ties with Wright would extend to him rigging the odious hobo into some kind of farcical jurist trial to indict him.

And _why_ did he not further investigate the significance of the Kurain Master? He'd even assumed her some crazy old woman and vague acquaintance of Wright's, a different person to that young crazy woman he'd thought an ex-lover now irrelevant to proceedings.

But a stay in jail for somebody as omnipotent as him could not last forever. As superior among humanity, his superior intellect would surely allow him to make his deserved exit from incarceration. He would just have to use the resources at his disposal.

For example, the mail. A few bribes and a forged document had allowed him virtually unrestricted access to the post. Things got opened and censored, but a genius like him could work around that. In fact, here was the mail now, the first issue of his subscription to '_Oh! Cult!_'. Kristoph didn't think much of the trashy magazine, but he was limited in what subscription forms made it to his cell, and he had hit upon the idea of investigating the potential of that lovely Devil on his hand. Serious research would require a more advanced publication, but maybe this would provide some leads as to research direction.

_What a strange publication_. Kristoph wasn't sure he believed in spirit mediums, on reflection, it had turned out that Wright probably did, which was good reason for Kristoph to be certain they were frauds. Though the 'gossip' section [tagline: _L. Hart_] was highly interesting. It waxed lyrical over how some 'secret undercover sources' had revealed that the highly powerful Kurain Master herself had hand-picked a male disciple, who she was grooming in all the secret techniques known only to the Master, and that this 'pet project' of hers was showing 'unprecedented levels of power, in strength and type never before witnessed by humankind!'

And there was a photo. It was blurry, but there was no mistaking those awful hair spikes. They may have been covered during the years he met with Kristoph, but nobody who had entered court would ever forget those hideous hair spikes.

Well, well. Looked like Wright had found another way to be a fraud.

Kristoph saved the article for future reference, and clipped out an interesting looking mail-order coupon on the facing page. It was for a book titled "_Demon Possession For Beginners_." With no other sources, at least it should provide some vague amusement.

###

'_Demon Possession For Beginners'_ presently arrived, and Kristoph pored over the instructions with captivation. He got quite excited when they resulted in pinkish smoke arising out of his Devil hand-mark, but all he had managed to capture was the sinister spectre of a glowingly pink butterfly. After two moments it just exploded in_to _flames. _What an inherently pointless exercise_, Kristoph's exasperation seethed.


	3. Chapter 3

Via '_Oh! Cult!_' and a catalogue he obtained by mail from an advertisement in it, Kristoph had obtained several objects claiming to possess 'spiritual powers'. He'd also acquired a few more books, and as boredom set in, he felt he should at least further explore this avenue for pursuing his goals.

In the spiritual sphere, he's probably some kind of god, so whatever ghosts he manages to conjure up can probably easily be controlled by him to perform his every whim.

###

The Devil on his hand acquired an eerie pink glow.

"What the hell do you want?" snapped a female voice.

"Are you a demon?" queried Kristoph politely.

"No, I'm just a cute, innocent little girl!" the pink voice corrected. "And I hope you know you're pathetic at this. Can't even channel properly at all. You'll never be a spirit medium. They'll banish you and probably kill you… wait, you're a male, aren't you?"

"It would appear so."

"I only bothered to come here because of that devil mark on your hand. You're too worthless to call me properly, you're just lucky I was bored! So why did you waste my time calling me?"

Kristoph's voice was as neutral as if they were discussing the weather "I wish to use your powers to get revenge on Phoenix Wright. Kill Miles Edgeworth. Kill Maya Fey."

"Maya... _Fey_?"

The pink glow increased in intensity.

"Well... I'll at least listen to your plans."

###

"Okay, I want to transform into your appearance, so they will let me out of here," Kristoph addressed the spirit through the devil mark, as he recalled the photos in '_Oh! Cult!_'.

"Idiot! _You_ can't do that! You're incompetent, with no spiritual powers!"

"Of course I have supreme powers," countered Kristoph. "I'm channelling you."

"Pretentious bastard! _I'm_ doing all the work here! I can only enter the physical world by that demonic mark on your hand! I'm not actually in _you_!"

"But _Wright_ can do it!" _L. Hart_'s latest shocking expose had claimed that the Kurain Master's closest disciple could not only transform whilst channelling spirits, but also time-travel. There was even a 'photo' to prove it, an otherwise normal-looking person with that obscene spikey hair. Kristoph had envisioned being able to walk free as his body took on the appearance of this young lady.

"See this article?"

"I can't _see_, which is due to _your_ inferiority!"

"Wright has spiritual powers. He can channel spirits. Can't you enter him and hijack his body?"

"Idiot. Spirit mediums are _trained_ to not let their own psyche be hijacked." She suddenly paused. This _was_ pathetic Feenie they were talking about.

"Sometimes it is possible to hijack the body of those who are weak. Mediums take precautions against this though, and the psyche always absents, so they don't know what's going on."

The spirit was struck by inspiration.

"If you can also call my familiars, I may be able to force Feenie to channel me."

###

Kristoph seemed to be under the misapprehension that it was his entitlement to make these demands of her. Really, the burden of gratitude should be laden on _him_ – he knew nothing about spiritual powers, and she'd only bothered to go to the trouble of entering the weak signals provided by his Devil mark for her own personal amusement.

Kristoph had compiled a detailed ream of plans he arrogantly expected her to enact. Force Phoenix Wright to make a complex sequence of legal confessions, stating that both of Kristoph's murder trials and the jurist system were all a rigged forgery, that Wright was the true murderer of Shadi Smith and Drew Misham and Kristoph a completely innocent party, and admit that he'd really forged the evidence in the Gramarye trial.

There was also a plan to kill some irrelevant individual known as 'Miles Edgeworth', along with various other stupid demands.

She mentally discarded all of these, except for the one task which furthered her own aims. '_Kill Maya Fey_.' That was the best revenge she could still hope to get on Mia Fey, after all. She had to admit Kristoph's plan for execution was a nice touch. Manipulate Phoenix Wright's possessed body to begin killing her, then allow him to briefly return to conscious awareness just as he is killing her but unable to prevent himself physically completing the act. _Revenge is amusing. _

_You jerk!_

Maybe after Maya Fey is dead and her _own_ agenda has had gratification. Maybe then she might consider bothering to implement some of his other goals. _But only if I'm enjoying myself._

###

Dahlia may possess no extreme spiritual talents, but she's managed to harness a few demonic familiars which she can use to enhance her limited control over the physical realm, since Kristoph's Devil Mark is channelling them for her.

The odious Gavin had been ranting about Feenie having 'powers' - even being able to channel. No doubt it's all a joke as much as Feenie himself is a joke, but it means she can't really plan in advance how she can manipulate him, his 'powers' might help him resist like those pretentious Kurain mediums, especially if she tries to replace his soul or impinge on his psyche. Not that Dahlia was one to plan in advance anyway. Her aim is gratification, and fun and gratification usually were ad-libbed.

Phoenix is asleep, and she partially awakens him by directing some of the ghostly butterflies under his nose. Phoenix sneezes, still largely in slumber.

Dahlia wills them to flit in a hypnotic pattern of light, scrambling the vision of his still-blurry eyes. Due to his state of only semi-wakefulness, the hypnosis succeeds satisfyingly well.

She's not going to try totally possessing him at this time, what with not yet knowing how much resistance her stupid target's psyche will have to her control and not having come up yet with the most satisfying strategy. Dahlia knows from the tedious childhood indoctrination in Kurain enough about these silly 'powers'. If she had tried to enter a Kurain Medium's psyche against their will to actually inflect total control or replace their soul, the medium would detect the attack, their power of will would overcome her weaker strength of hypnosis and her spell of control would break - with her explusion from their body. It's a pain, but she has to be cautious, even with _Feenie_. Instead she makes initial advances on moving his body alone, willing him to wander aimlessly in semi-autonomous sleepwalk.

Most Kurain mediums would have detected the intrusion by now. Feenie really _was_ pathetic. Her force against his limbs grew bolder as she scanned for fun options via his hijacked retinas - Feenie-vision bathed in a pinkish tinge.

In the hall just outside his bedroom are displayed various ancient Fey family heirlooms. There's a brutal-looking ceremonial katana on the wall, surely capable of inducing a fatality in the correct hands.

No, Feenie hasn't entered the correct state of control to the level of him actually killing with it now- he'd probably wake from her hypnosis at such an extreme action. That would just be _boring_ anyway, she decides, with everyone dazed and asleep, and she's still getting her bearings on actually using her Feenie Puppet. But she does manage to induce his limbs to dazedly remove it from the wall and stow it among the items he's taking on the training expedition tomorrow.

Tomorrow. She should be able to posess his soul properly and replace it against his will. Feenie _did_ have some kind of spiritual capabilities, Dahlia had decided, as otherwise she would have been unable to enter him at all, but the spirit channelling ones were of a childlike patheticness and defenselessness. There to be exploited by ghosts and never controlled by him, and there was nothing the best tutor on Earth could ever do about it.


	4. Chapter 4

Feenie is meditating peaceably whilst he awaits the return of Maya – the level of serenity practically makes Dahlia sick. His trance like state makes it easier to connect with spirits – or, in the case of someone like him without all the right defensive powers, easier for spirits to connect with _him_.

Dahlia manages to hijack her way into his body – but is immediately incensed. This wasn't the usual system of channelling at all! There was no way to hinge her physical appearance on this travesty, and worse, his psyche had not exited for her own's replacement in the usual Kurain way. The dumb thing was just sitting there in disabled but blundering presence. _Ewwwww..._

Well, Feenie always _was_ pathetic. She'd just have to make do.

###

Maya has planned an intensive training session, but she reconsiders immediately the instant she sees Phoenix. His eyes are somewhat vacant and unfocused, and when he speaks, it's unnatural and laboured, as if unpractised.

"Are you feeling okay? I don't think we should train today. You should rest." She starts back in the direction of the winding mountain path home. "We can watch some DVDs, and I'll cook you some burgers.."

"No," stammers Phoenix robotically.

Extremely firmly, he reiterates. "I want to train."

"I don't think you should..."

"Bitch!" explodes Phoenix. "Do what I say!"

"_WHAAAAT?_" Maya's eyes flash. "What the heck is UP WITH YOU TODAY? That's no way to speak to the Master - and that's no way to speak to ME!"

Her jaws snarl open to say more, but all words flail in confusion and a numbing punch of overriding concern. Something was j-just - _off_ - about Nick today, though what to call it, her intuition was still fighting a murk...

She seethes through a string of pictures of her own punishments as a trainee acolyte (usually deployed by dear Aunt Morgan), the mildest being a nice disciplinary smash with the Spirit-Severing Stick which her fingers now seized aloft - but they are all displaced by one disturbing look at his slightly vacant eyes. _Nick?_

Fury aims a stab back. Ugh, she can't stand to look at him! She fights for a semblance of responsibility - as his mentor it's her job, her first priority, to look after him - and curtly snaps out orders for a relatively easy meditation before stalking off. The big idiot wants to train, let him train! It's not very hard, she shouldn't have to supervise. Like she hasn't put up with enough today - earlier, she caught him sprinkling some weird powder on their food, which he claimed was 'pepper', but it didn't _smell_ like pepper - and she'd had to throw it away. How dare he - destroying perfectly good food was a crime! A-and... Her feet pound him a rhythm of audible menace, round the boulder to the furthest possible away ledge where she won't have to see him or be near him.

W-well there was no sense in staying mad. She should clear her mind with an advanced meditation.

Soon she was far, far away in a trance.

So when she was harshly jerked back to reality, she was pretty disoriented.

"NICK! LET GO OF ME!"

Nick just pushes her to the very edge of the nearby cliff-ledge. One movement and she'll fall to her death. Overpowering him and escaping isn't very likely either – while she was out of it, he's barricaded off the entire ledge with insurmountable boulders. He's wielding a katana, now jabbing the tip into her chest, directly in line with her heart. It draws a drop of blood.

His expression is still vacant, but inscrutable.

_###_

_Those buggy little eyes! They're making me sick!_

Maya Fey wasn't the brightest, but the silly thing's pupils had given weird bloated looks every time Dahlia opened Feenie's mouth. What a pain.

Her childish tantrum when she'd chewed her out for not obeying orders sure had been amusing. _But Mystic Maya, Terry loved it when I talked to him like that!_ If she'd had her live body, it would have smirked.

Still, maybe Feenie should shut up a little more to avoid detection. _Like it isn't great enough to be puppeting the little jerk anyway!_

A sickening delirium oozes through her spectre at being back in control of Feenie (the one who thought he got away.) _Ha...!_ Oooh, the irony. _I could get off on *this*, Feenie._ She subconsciously giggles at her sarcasm.

It's the ultimate power trip, total control of those pathetic losers who are caught in the delusion love is 'real' or something. It isn't of course, (that's why _she_ never got any, because it doesn't exist in the first place.) Nobody cares about anything but their own agendas, her (that Kristoph's an idiot), Iris, her evil bitch mother.

That big oaf Terry actually drinking suicide under her control - she muses addiction - in that insane rant he 'loved' and 'believed' in her lie! Her stone heart swells with this ultimate victory, surely the manifestation of the height of her existence. Morgan too, was finally poisoned in her mind that day. Pity it all went downhill after that. _Now they'll pay._

Feenie is still trapped in a lie. The problem is, it now seems to be her arch enemy Mia's lie. Or until the control of that little bitch Maya's delusion. All one and the same. She stings with the vengence of her personal exorcised hell. Maya - Mia - thought she'd win?

If she couldn't keep Feenie under her spell, she'd sure as her Hell not let Maya continue to manifest the same delusion over (with?) him. Her idiot little puppet would stab it apart himself - and Mia and Maya will know all about it. _I win._

And then she'll get a suicide to rival Terry. Mind control? This manipulation was even _better_ than soul replacement! As usual, Feenie's patheticness was not a curse, but a bonus of infantile exploitation. _Still the same snot-nosed baby loser, aren't we, Feenie? You never _really _'grew up'._

She'd thought of physical posession as a second best option, but manipulating his feeble limbs directly was even more enjoyable that she'd anticipated. Oh, his silly will flails a little resistance, but it's easily overpowered. And his every cell will be under her direction momentarily again anyway - _Feenie thinks he's in looooove!_ - the usual weakness. And if Maya thinks _he_ 'loves' _her_ -that delusion and control will be kindly shattered.

A little drool slips from Feenie's mouth.

**###**

Despite his body being hijacked, Phoenix's consciousness is still largely sentient, and he screams to himself to stop, but his body is uncontrollable, and he has absolutely no methods to fight that spirit hijacking his body. In fact, he can't even detect that it is a spirit,- he just assumes he has somehow gone insane. How can he be killing _Maya_? He'll never, ever forgive himself.

Dahlia can feel Feenie's physical resistance, but it's easy to overpower, and barely slows her.

Every pounding moment slows as Maya surveys the scene. Nick would _never_ do this, it's incomprehensible, surely?

But there isn't much time to think. Phoenix's hand is plunging the blade into Maya's chest, imminently to impale her heart...

"Nick, you're possessed!" she cries in sudden final realisation, lamely hoping he'll hear her and at least know the reason for what 'he' has done to her.

Her original charade exposed, Dahlia only momentarly cares. "So I have triumphed after all, MIA FEY!" 'Feenie' screeches for the attention and now real audience of her arch enemy, now seeing no reason to mask the possession. Who cares, Maya dying will still do as vengence enough. Feenie will still suicide (or die wanting to), and Mia will still see that Dahlia has won.

The sword is a millimetre from the fatal impalement, when suddenly Maya's organs have moved!

In light of Maya's imminent departure to the spirit world, connection had been close, and Mia had _insisted_ on being channelled into her

The change in physical dimensions is enough to escape 'Phoenix's' clutches and fatal injury.

"I will now have my revenge, MIA FEY!" screeches Phoenix, his voice un-naturally high pitched. He's about to stab Mia, but Maya calls her back, and the blow again misses. In the confusion, Maya knocks the katana off-balance and it plunges off the cliff.

He was obviously possessed. Maya soothes her nerves by knowing that things could be righted by hitting him with the Spirit-Severing Stick, a spiritually charged object that would send spirits hurtling back to the spirit world, provided the host was knocked unconscious. It was standard procedure nowadays in the case of unruly spirits during channellings.

Maya grits her teeth and thwacks Phoenix over the head as hard as she can. He slumps briefly, eyes vacating further during his slide into unconsciousness.

But a moment later, his body jerks upright again. The Spirit-Severing Technique was designed to work in tandem with the Kurain Channelling Technique, and obviously Phoenix's powers differed too substantially for it to have proper effect. The malevolent spirit was still there, and now that Phoenix's psyche was unconscious, it was finding his body even easier to control.

Maya bulldozes her own powers past Phoenix's blunderous psyche, impeded by the resistence of the manevolent imposter. _*Dahlia*_. She flings away the hideous memories attached to why she can so readily ID _that_ spirit, saving Phoenix is all she cares about now.

Seized by initiative, Maya desperately attempts to channel Dahlia out of Phoenix and into herself. Her powers were infinitely stronger than his, so hopefully it should not matter that his possession was not of the Kurain variety.

Dahlia senses her aims, and resists with every particle of her ectoplasma. It was difficult to channel her, because instead of replacing the psyche of the physical being like a normal channelling, she was obscuring herself _inside_ it. And channelling living humans was _not_ possible.

An inautonomous low moan of agony had begun to emit from Phoenix's body, continuing uninterrupted in the background every time 'Phoenix' spoke the garbled trash-talk.

Maya was terrified. Phoenix simply didn't have strong enough powers in the correct areas to safely permit a channelling (or possession). Judging by the physical price expended by powers he _did_ posses in abundance, this 'channelling' was most definitely at fatal risk to his health.

Despite the practically insurmountable odds, Maya almost succeeds in tearing Dahlia's spirit out of Phoenix and into herself. Dahlia is taken aback (even _Misty's_ powers were not capable of this feat) but rebalances herself by taunting "You know as soon as you channel me, I'll throw you off a cliff and kill you."

"I _know_!" growls Maya through gritted teeth. She doesn't really care, all she _does_ care about is the fact that she doubts Phoenix's mortal body can take more than another minute of this abuse. He's slipping ever closer to eternal exit to the spirit world.

Maya herself is beginning to weaken, her training robes weighted down by the mass of blood they are soaked in, still pouring from her chest. Dahlia's resistance suddenly increases as, in a last ditch effort, a cloud of eerie butterfly-shaped objects collect around Phoenix.

Maya clutches her Magatama for support as she attempts once more to increase her powers. It's still glowing from the charge Phoenix gave it, and she is momentarily confused when it causes her to view black Psyche-Locks.

On the butterflies.

Seems poor Phoenix slightly malfunctioned the prescribed exercise.

"Are you Dahlia's familiars?" she vaguely addresses a 'butterfly'.

_It's only a butterfly._ Maya clutches her Magatama in a death-grip as she redirects the sum total of her will and powers into breaking that black Psyche-Lock, blind intution and her instinct to protect Nick sending her into hence-uncharted territory.

Suddenly her Magatama sparks, and the lock smashes, the butterfly exploding into blue flames and vanishing.

Phoenix emits an un-natural scream.

Maya repeats the exercise on the three remaining butterflies. She's on the verge of collapse, but though Dahlia's resistance is now weakened, she's still stubbornly impossible to channel.

Maya is on the verge of eternal departure to the spirit world herself. But with a last surge of effort, her powers capture Dahlia, at the same moment wielding the Spirit-Severing Stick in a sweeping arc destined to smash on her own head.

In the moment before she is expelled, Dahlia hurls Phoenix's tortured body off the cliff.

In the microsecond after Dahlia enters Maya, the Spirit-Severing Stick crashes down, ejecting her back to the spirit world.

A sole spectral butterfly still flits around the Devil Mark on Kristoph's hand.

* * *

_NOTES: As canon in 2-4 and 3-5, a higher powered medium takes precedent in chanelling in Kurain technique - for example, when Maya calls Mia out of Pearl and into herself during 2-4 trial, Misty and Maya chanelling Dahlia in 3-5 so Pearl can't etc._


	5. Chapter 5

"That's a nice rose," comments Iris. "And such a pretty butterfly! I'm sure you're a very cultured man."

"Quite."

Kristoph internally curses the unwelcome visitor.

It's that infuriating nun, Sister Iris, who, since a previous incarceration herself, likes to minister compassion to the inmates. She's wearing some kind of ridiculous nun outfit with a hood. Kristoph feels he would murder her, if only he could figure out how to elude detection.

Iris was attracted by a strange presence. It had a comforting familiarity.

"You do know murder is wrong now, don't you. I'm sure they'll let you out soon."

"Well, I wouldn't have had to murder them if they'd had the sense not to inconvenience me, my dear..."

Iris is still eyeing the butterfly, captivated.

Kristoph is slightly nervous. Nuns might know about this demon possession garbage. He hopes she won't object and meddle. He's taken to wearing gloves now - the Devil mark never fades and is liable to emit a pink glow at any hour of the day or night. He's not about to disrupt connection. Dahlia must be able to enact his plan at any time opportunity arises.

He's very annoyed she's made little progress, but she did significantly placate him by informing him that her actions drove Wright to attempted suicide, flinging himself off a cliff. The concept of Wright in such psychological torture as to want to kill himself is cheering, even if his attempt _did_ fail.

**###**

Maya's chest wound wasn't _that _serious, she protested, and though she was _supposed_ to stay in the hospital for a lengthy period, she checked herself out as immediately as possible and rushed to Phoenix's bedside.

It was just lucky that Maya had the forethought to have her phone among the items she'd taken to the training session, and she'd managed to regain consciousness long enough to crawl to it and call Pearl, who had been able to mobilise Emergency Services.

Phoenix's cliff-face plunge had thankfully been stalled by a stunted mountain bush. His physical condition had been pretty drastic, but they'd managed to expel Dahlia just before she could wreak permanent damage. He's stabilising, and again conscious.

"I'm so sorry Nick, it's all my fault!" Tears of distress blurred her eyes. "You were possessed, and I was supposed to be looking after you!"

Though, admittedly, she didn't think any of the other Mystics would have been able to do anything different. Phoenix's capabilities just seemed to defy the usual Kurain techniques. She never imagined he could be possessed so easily though, it didn't make sense. She had a horrible suspicion Dahlia had achieved it by utilising some external power source to support herself.

###

"Ok-kay Pearly, let's retread what we already know.." Maya choked back a yawn.

"Mystic Maya, you should rest! I will take your shift.."

"Are you insane!"

"Ah, True Love!" Pearl batted her doe eyes and gave up. "Oh, Mystic Maya, your powers must be immense! Only the Great Masters of Legend could break the Black Psyche-Lock! In fact, maybe they _were_ of legend. It is like a fairytale!"

"PEARLY! This isn't helping."

"It is like Pink Princess in the beautiful episode defending the Foil Ronin!"

_N-no. I won't lose focus. _Despite her earlier expulsion, Dahlia had returned to try to possess Phoenix again. She was weaker now, and Maya's defensive paranoias attuned to her ghostly identity, so Maya had awoken and fought Dahlia off with her own will of psyche. But Dahlia hadn't given up, and her and Pearl had to take turns guarding Nick whenever his psyche was defenseless due to sleep. _Lucky she's too weak now when he's awake!_

"It w-wasn't the same, Pearly. The Psyche-Locks were on the butterfly familiars, not people, a-and the Magatama helped me direct my powers into the actual locks rather than just throwing it round randomly.."

"This is unprecedented! Your powers accessing the realm of the non-human, and being augmented by the mechanism of the Magatama!"

"Huh? Magatamas and 'augmenting' aren't 'unprecedented'. N-Nick's charge was off, and it did something weird." (_But my instincts trusted it to support my powers anyway._)

Maya's head hurt.

"D-do you think I was breaking the psyche of the butterflies, or of the possessing s-spirit, or of the spiritual power that cursed the butterflies?_"_

"I have no idea, Mystic Master Maya. But Mystic Mr Nick's powers are undoubtedly very strange, and your own are unquestionably immense."

"D-do butterflies even have souls?"

"I believe it is irrelevant, Mystic Maya. I believe it is as you ascertained before, that they are imbrued with this 'energy source' of unforetold origin, and that this is the key to weakening this malevolent force. Now here is another ancient anti-curse charm I have uncovered. In its current instructions it does not appear to be relevant, but the Great Master Maya does not do things by the book!_"_

It was a demoralising process. Go fast and flagellate in attempt to build her power level to even manifest the charms in any strength in the first place, and rely on her intuition and instinct to modify the spells to suit the current situation, which bore only partial parallel to what the charms were intended for. _But anything for Nick! _On this motivation, Maya inflated the force of her will. But there was still no breakthrough.

###

Kristoph is viewing his surveillance tape with interest. Taking a leaf out of Wright's book, he 'accidentally' dropped a tiny spy camera when he was being escorted by the guards to the prison exercise yard.

Today he's observing the visitors, as it's prison visiting day. His heart palpitates momentarily as he views the entry of a pair of visitors - fraudulent Wright, and that crazy Maya Fey. He hoped that Wright wouldn't decide to visit him – that Fey woman might try to disrupt his channelling equipment.

Unfortunately it seemed their injuries were improving – Wright _just_seemed to have a few broken bones, and the Fey woman wore a hefty bandage – but it turned out they were on their way to another inmate, who he hoped would reject their gift of a 20kg bag of luxury coffee beans.

Upon their exit, they pause, close enough to Kristoph's cell to hear them but not where he could see them.

"You know what's in there?"

"Um.. that was Kristoph's cell," they collude in hushed whispers.

"But I feel.. something…''

"_I_ don't."

Maya's sure that some weak but disconcerting power is emanating within the cell. One with which she is vaguely familiar.

But maybe it's just Morgan haunting the cell. She was kept there before her execution after all.

"Let's go, Maya," pleads Phoenix. "I kind of never want to see or hear Kristoph ever again."

Maya doesn't blame him. No sense in re-opening old wounds.

Something has to be done, though. Dahlia still keeps attempting to re-posess Phoenix, and she and Pearl still have to take turns sitting with him as he sleeps. They've spent a lot of time and energy trying to find a charm or technique to render him unpossessable, but none have suceeded thus far.


	6. Chapter 6

Maya has resolved to investigate that eerily familiar power source in Kristoph's cell.

Alone.

She hasn't told Phoenix because she doesn't want to worry him. He'd probably insist on coming with her, and she neither wants to put him in danger or force him to see Kristoph again. _I can't let him tourture Nick any longer._

She herself is scared out of her wits, but succeeds in projecting an air of outward calm.

"Well, well! What a surprise! The Kurain Master, or whatever they call you. Have you come to complain to me? Well, there's no need. We both know it is I who is in the right."

"Actually, I was hoping we could put aside our differences and have constructive reconciliatory discussion," stalls Maya.

"What does Wright want?" demands Kristoph exasperatedly.

"Nothing. I come here solely on my own behalf."

"Ah, my dear! Are you finally awakening to the sad truth that is Phoenix Wright?" Kristoph is delighted. Maybe Dahlia's possessions are indeed beginning to achieve effect even among his closest acquaintances.

This is taking every atom of Maya's self control. There's nobody, living or dead, she hates more than Kristoph Gavin, and on countless occasions she's fantasised about punching him in the face.

But she must ignore the temptations of this tantalising opportunity and concentrate on the one task she has risked herself for. She sets herself to detecting errant power sources, and it doesn't take long to find it.

She attempts to keep up conversation with Kristoph as she watches the small butterfly flit in the corner of the room. Its signature vibration is disturbingly familiar.

"TAKE THAT!" she suddenly shouts, thrusting out her Magatama.

"Ho, ho, you too! Wright already tried that. It doesn't work on _me_."

But Maya is oblivious to him, her entire focus consumed with the butterfly, who was acquiring a pinkish glow. This one was far harder to break than the others - it was consuming all her resources of resolve, and she soon collapses to the ground, shaking.

Kristoph laughs, in his arrogance believing she is still directing her ungratified effort at him.

Too late, Kristoph recalls the connection between Dahlia and the butterfly. He rapidly crushes Maya under the bookcase, and attempts to force the Magatama out of her hands. Just as he succeeds, blue sparks erupt from it, causing him to drop it in shock.

It's too late anyway. The butterfly has imploded in blue flames, and the guards have arrived to rescue the unconscious Maya.

###

Dahlia is patently furious with Kristoph. Conveniently not mentioning the other 4 butterflies, she directs sole blame on him for allowing her power resource to be destroyed. Since she's dead, she can't co-opt new ones. Without her external power resource, she can no longer possess people like Phoenix. She orders him back to the drawing board.

After weeks of intensive training, research and experimentation, Maya and Pearl have finally succeeded in imbruing Phoenix's Magatama with an additional charm which should dissuade all forms of possession. Maya knows as well as anyone that spiritual powers are a double-edged sword, and she resolves to devote more attention to helping Phoenix protect himself from, as well as utilise, the potentials of his powers.

* * *

_So now we set the scene for 'BOOK 2'. Yay..._


	7. Exciting Update

Right, I edited the story Dec 2011 since I'm continuing this narrative arc with my sequel

_**The Order of The Phoenix: BOOK 2: Cult Of The Butterfly**_

*infinite excitement*

I'm investing more time and effort in the 'sequel', so it will be... better! *gasp*.

Please read the fic _**The Order of The Phoenix: Cult Of The Butterfly **_to continue the story.


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